Cab ride on the old Soo Line in Oshkosh, WI 1995
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 8:17 pm
This is pretty neat. An Oshkosh city manager takes a cab ride over the Wisconsin Central's ex-Soo Line tracks through downtown Oshkosh, WI at the end of August, 1995, shortly before they were removed. As he describes, WC had just taken over the Fox River Valley Railroad, a short line which had owned the ex-Chicago & Northwestern alignment through town.
The city wanted WC to move all traffic to the ex-C&NW alignment due to the 35 (!!!) grade crossings and several blocks of street running on the old SOO. The railroad was cooperating, and this interesting line's death warrant had been signed by the time of this video. The train runs north up the ex-SOO, then reverses back south down the ex-C&NW which was soon to become the only line through the city. Most of the crossings had Griswold signals, some still with working stop signs, until the end. One (Murdock Street) even had wigwags!
As the narrator is describing the hazards associated with all the crossings, several times cars blow through the signals right in front of the train, like AS the locomotive is entering the crossing!
The only annoying part is that the narrator never shuts up, so you can't hear the train sounds very well. The engineer NEVER blows the horn, even when a car runs across right in front of the train, and you can't hear the crossing bells at all. Still, it's a fascinating look back at history that has been gone for 17 years now:
http://www.oshkoshcommunitymedia.org/so ... entary.htm
The city wanted WC to move all traffic to the ex-C&NW alignment due to the 35 (!!!) grade crossings and several blocks of street running on the old SOO. The railroad was cooperating, and this interesting line's death warrant had been signed by the time of this video. The train runs north up the ex-SOO, then reverses back south down the ex-C&NW which was soon to become the only line through the city. Most of the crossings had Griswold signals, some still with working stop signs, until the end. One (Murdock Street) even had wigwags!
As the narrator is describing the hazards associated with all the crossings, several times cars blow through the signals right in front of the train, like AS the locomotive is entering the crossing!
The only annoying part is that the narrator never shuts up, so you can't hear the train sounds very well. The engineer NEVER blows the horn, even when a car runs across right in front of the train, and you can't hear the crossing bells at all. Still, it's a fascinating look back at history that has been gone for 17 years now:http://www.oshkoshcommunitymedia.org/so ... entary.htm